The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1887-03-04
ABOUT Boards.
CHANGING FASHIONS FOR THE
FACE OF MANKIND.
Ancient Nations With and without
Beards-A Great Church Ques-
tion-English and American
Changes in Boards


Changes in Boards
There probably never was a time in
the history of the world when there was
such perfect indifference as to whether
the beard was worn or not as in these
present closing years Of the nineteenth
century 1t has not been many years
since man emerged from the depotism of
fashion in this respect. Thirty years ago
a business man who wore a moustache
was not rated very high, and a few
years prior of that if he wore beard and
mustache he was doomed to helpless
bankruptcy.
The vicissitudes of public favor which
boards have at various epochs undergone
make curious chapter in the history of
fashion. The oldest literature we possess
has commands concerning the beard, and
1t would seem as if the first pIomptings
Of primitive man, as soon as he saw his
own reflection IN the water, was TO make
some change in his appearance, so he
took to running rings through his ears
and nose, and scraping the hair of his
face. The first razors were sharp fiints
and shells, but as soon as man learned
how TO work in iron among the first i'm
PIGMENTS he made was the razor.
Adam was created with q beard, and
all the patriarchs continued the fashion
One OF the earliest of the divine COM
mands was: Thou shalt not shave the
beard, y and it has been remarked that
this was the only command not 1nfyef
ally tranggTessed prior to the deluqes.
The law of Moses forbade the Jews to
shave, and there are frequent illusions
10 "a ors in the Pentateuch.
The Assyrians were the first of ancient
people universally to shave, and this was
said to be due to the command of the En-
press Semiramis. She did not favor this
mako difference between the faces of the
sexes, and as she could not wear a beard
though she wore the habit OF man, she
decreed that on certain day all the
boards in her empire should be shaved
of. As she had a hand of iron it was
done as she commanded.
All the great sagcs and heroes of
Greece wore boards, as we perceive in
the pictures of Homer, Socrates, Arts
tides, and Themistocles. Alcibiades, the
Athenian dandy, dyed his beard and per-
fumed it. In one of Platos dialogues
Socrates says: THE most gaceful ace is
that of youth with his iirst beard
Soon after razors were introduced in !
Gree came Alexander and the Macedo-
mans. The Romans, too, in heir days
of might and power wore boards, but |
with the introduction of razors came the
decadence of the Eternal City, julius
Cesar, Pompey, Antony, Augustus, Cic- /
ero, Virgil, ard Horace were all clean |
shaven men.
The question Of boards was fruitful |
subject of discussion in the early coum-
ellis of the church The carly fathers
wore boards, and there was particular
canon adopted in the third century for
bidding the priests to shave. The Popes
wore boards until the separation of the
Latin and Greek churches, in the eighth
century, when, under the decree of Pope
Leo Ill, the Latin clergy were ordered
TO cut off their boards as a mark of dis
tinction from the Greek priests, who re-
tain theirs to this day Pope John MI.
was deposed in 1913 for having, among
other crimes, worn his beard.
The Turks and all the strict followers
Of Mahomet take religious care of the
beard. Every hair is saved, and those
hat fall out in combing arc carefully
preserved and buried, for they believe
very hair is in charge of the angels. A
SIussulman who trims his beard is looked
ipon as a hereto No turk who has had !
son. or who has made a pilgrimage to
o Mecca, aud batned his beard IN tbl}
waters of the sacred we'll of Zem-Zeni,
will allow hair of his beard to be cut. ]
In nglaad the fashion in boards
hanged from age to age. Formore than
wo centuries prior to Henry VIII. the
nustache only was worn, but that mon
rich introduced the full beard, as may
" seen in his portrait, which fashion
oftinued through the heroic reign of
i azabeth Shakespeare, Bacon, Raleigh,
I, gley and all the great men of that pc
"A wore full boards. Shakespeare's
i>are full of illusions to the beard.
~ CHARLES !. IS time the peaked beard
: ~ - iSalier was all the fashion, but
10 atTarn;s5te days of his son brought
, olaan len faces. From that day
ntil within the.-rlsies Vi tn1 present
entury, period of nesTTTyy is9 hundred
ears, TO shave was the fashion, to weSf
beard an outrage upon good sense and
pod manners, at least among English O
,eakiuC people. r
The heroes of our revolution wore q
anoth faces. Washington, Adams, Han Il
'ek, Franklin, Hamilton and the rest t
used the razor. Lincoln was the first Il
our Presidents that wore whiskers. 81
ID he did not grow them till he went to t,
ashington. Martin Van Buren, had
whiskers, permissible il. his
ne, but Lincolns were the first full
1iskers and Grants the first full beard II u
at adorned the Presidential face. HAYES L
d Garfield were full bearded men. Ar. 81
ur wore mutton-chop whiskers and "
lstache, and Cleveland wears a mus u
'he only, the first President to be a.
orned in that way "
One reason why neither whiskers nor bi
lstache could be tolerated during the W
t century and the early part of this DC
S the fashion of snuff-taking, and it m
$ not until that habit began to disap- ca
ar that the revival of the beard was dc
n talked of. pr
During our civil war beards came kr
IRE and more in general fashion. and it
frequently suggested by the press to
+. Chase, who, in raising the enormous =,
Denditure at that time, had proposed nj
Congress taxes on almost every article ri,
food and clothing, that tax be laid "a
boards. 1t would have despotic prec- ioi
mt, for Peter the Great laid tax on me
boards of his subjects. His object In
5 to abolish boards in his dominIons, th'
ich he succeeded in doing. 1t was not fro
il the time of the great Empress an
marine that Russian subjects were yc'
IN permitted to wear boards yo'
he only law in our free country re- Ing
ding boards concerns our navy. Our full
liant tars are not permitted to wear del
I'd or mustache. The same ordi- tw'
ices applied to the army at one time, egE
it was repealed many years ago, the
: stipulation being that the beard
nld be closely cut Chicago Herald.